RICHES POLICY SEMINAR, Brussels, 19 October 2015

“NEW HORIZONS FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE – Recalibrating relationships: bringing cultural heritage and people together in a changing Europe”.

The Policy Seminar of the RICHES project (Renewal, Innovation and Change: Heritage and European Society) just concluded. The scope of the seminar was to discuss how the project can provide insights to support evidence-based policymaking in Europe. The event, organized in cooperation with the Project Officer was held at the Nowotny Auditorium, Covent Garden building of the European Research Council.

The Seminar comprised political updates by representatives from the European Parliament and the European Commission, the presentation of policy recommendations from the RICHES project and a Round Table discussion involving major stakeholders.

Prof. Gábor Sonkoly, Vice-Dean of International Affairs, Faculty of Humanities – Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest was the chair of a Round table discussion including as pannelists Nathalie Doury, Parisienne de Photographie; Paul Klimpel, Lawyer and expert on IPR for digital cultural heritage; Philippe Keraudren, Deputy Head of Unit, DG RTD, Unit “Reflective Societies”; Victoria Walsh, Professor at the Royal College of Art, London, Head of Programme Curating Contemporary Art.

View here details of the speakers and panellists of the Policy Seminar.

The policies presented by RICHES are related to the need to develop and use a common taxonomy, innovation in copyright frameworks and open access to data and information, and co-creation practices to facilitate innovation in the cultural heritage sector – all with the purpose of overcoming a range of barriers and constraints.

The event was preceded in the morning by a Networking Session where invited participants in EC-funded projects discussed aims and achievements in the light of establishing new, profitable collaborations and synergies. Read more about the 13 project involved here: http://www.riches-project.eu/networking-session.html

The RICHES project office, dr. Zoltán Krasnai, commented the day after the event: “I am very proud of the RICHES project and the policy seminar so professionally organised and managed yesterday. I found the seminar very successful from several points of view: it gave the opportunity for networking among many projects and organisations from much different backgrounds; we had high quality policy updates from DG EAC and the cabinet of Commissioner Moedas; we had concise, very well-structured presentations of the policy recommendations of RICHES and the work of RICHES in general; we had a vivid round-table discussion among enthusiastic professionals with different backgrounds in CH management, research, promotion and policy making. Also, the seminar showed the complexity of research and policy domains covered by cultural heritage and the fragmentation of CH stakeholder communities. Any European policy efforts to move forward a more integrated approach toward cultural heritage has to deal with and overcome this stakeholder fragmentation. I look forward with the greatest interest to the second policy seminar.“

Interested on the RICHES project? Subscribe to the RICHES newsletter to receive updates, by emailing info@riches-project.eu